Nurses’ uniform debate not all black and white
Sick children’s response to colourful smocks trumps universal attire, say Nova Scotia RNS
The introduction of black and white uniforms has more than a few Nova Scotia registered nurses seeing red.
A new policy has been introduced requiring most nurses to wear a standard uniform — white top and black pants or skirt — in an effort to immediately identify registered nurses from the assortment of other health-care workers.
This has not gone down well with some nurses, especially those who work with children.
They say this kind of antiseptic dress will turn off children, unlike the colourful smocks they wear now.
“On our particular unit, it has all been against the uniform. And I have actually received emails from other nurses in the other provinces who are just as upset with this,” Laurel Macisaac, a registered nurse in the Halifax Children’s Hospital’s intensive care unit, told the Toronto Star on Friday.
“There are people who are not happy about the changeover to standardized uniform.”
Macisaac said research has shown time and again children respond to brightly coloured printed tops “and that their outcomes are better because of that uniform.”
Macisaac said the suggestion that it’s a matter of identification can be easily addressed by either wearing a name tag, or the nurses introducing themselves to a patient. The black and white uniform, however, has the support of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, which says it has received complaints from the public about not being able to pick out registered nurses in a hospital setting from other unregulated health-care providers. “I get complaints from patients every day,” Janet Hazelton, president of the 6,500-member NSNU, told the Star. She added that a recent union poll showed 80 per cent of Nova Scotians support a standardized uniform for registered nurses. “We will be starting a campaign to say this is what a nurse looks like,” Hazelton said. Ironically, nurses could still wear a coloured smock or lab coat over top the new uniform. Macisaac says this proves the whole switch, which is expected to cost between $500,000 and $600,000 a year, is a waste of money. Nurses, who are members of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union, are expected to be in uniform before the spring, while the other provincial nurses union, the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, won’t be affected. Hazelton says she knows some nurses are not happy but urges her members to at least give it a chance for a year and if after that if they’re still unhappy then the policy could be revisited. Ontario does not have a province-wide rule about uniforms.